Update on Stephanie Oman
Fall 2011: Click here to read about Sephanie's fall activities.
Stephanie Oman, the 5th Fellow, finished her second year at the University of Delaware/Winterthur. Stephanie's spring semester projects included: Restoring the Stations of the Cross painting for the Holy Innocents Church, recreating historical faux finishes, completing the reveal of lettering from a train panel for the Delaware Historical Society and beginning to investigate the interior paint history of a 1750 Delaware building on the Winterthur grounds.
Her summer internship took her to Edinburg, Scotland to preserve a mural in the National Portrait Galleries. Click here to read about it.
This fall Stephanie has been accepted as a third-year intern at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, working in the Furniture Conservation Department. Stephanie writes: "I can not wait to expand my knowledge as I finish my graduate studies and begin my career in art conservation. Thank you to each Quester for your continued support and generosity."
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE/WINTERTHUR
WILLMINGTON, DELEWARE
The curriculum of the First Year introduces the student to an overview of the conservation field and its varied specialties: the history of art and artifact technology, the essential physical and chemical properties of materials, mechanisms of deterioration, and the conservation treatment of cultural property, and the fundamentals of preventive conservation.
In the Second Year, the student focuses on their specialty of choice with the objective of continuing the development of basic hand skills, a thorough ability to examine and document the condition of cultural property, problem solving and ethical treatment decision making, and an understanding of the care and preservation of specialty objects. Specializations include furniture, objects, painted & decorative surfaces, paintings, paper, photographic materials, and textiles. Students in all specialities can also declare an additional concentration in preventive conservation.
The entire Third Year, or internship, is spent under the supervision and mentoring of a conservation professional(s) at one or more host institution(s) or private laboratories, where the student should function as a cooperative and productive staff member. The fundamental objectives of this phase are to broaden the student's exposure to specialty object problems and treatments, refine hand skills, build confidence in object assessment and decision making, improve report-writing skills, and develop responsible professionalism.
Stephanie Oman:
The Questers' 5th fellow
2010 Summer Report: Stephanie Oman
5th Fellow, University of Delaware/Winterthur
This summer I had the privilege to intern at Shangri La, a historic house museum in Honolulu, Hawaii that was owned by Doris Duke. After a honeymoon around the globe that ended in Hawaii, Doris Duke decided to construct a home in an idyllic spot on the island of Oahu. She began to design the house with the help of architects at the young age of 23. In addition to building a beautiful home, she incorporated many Islamic art objects that she had collected in her travels. The result of her efforts was a breathtaking combination of art, architecture, and natural beauty that amazed visitors in Duke’s time and continues to amaze the public today.
Middle: Master bath – marble tiles inspired by the Taj Mahal, Image by S.Gowen
Right: View of the Playhouse; Doris Duke held concerts there, Image by S. Gowen
Unfortunately, the open-air environment of the museum has created many conservation concerns. There has been an ongoing relationship between Shangri La and WUDPAC for the last five summers, as there are many historic interiors in the museum that have required treatment. Over the last two summers, pairs of WUDPAC interns have addressed the treatment of the Turkish Room, which also has painted interior panels from Damascus, Syria. Sarah Gowen and I were both thrilled to be selected for this internship, and we had an amazing summer.
Left: Damascus Room
Early 19th c, Image from
Shangri La Archives
Right: Turkish Room
Late 18th c & mid-19th c
Image from Shangri La Archives
Since the Turkish Room is such a large room with a variety of decorative surfaces, it was divided into sections to accommodate the limited amount of treatment time each summer. Last summer, the interns focused on the treatment of the ceiling, which dates to the late 18th century and comes from the Quwwatli home in Damascus, Syria. The major condition issues with the ceiling involved flaking paint and ‘adjami, which is a gesso material that is dripped from a stick to form the raised decoration on the wooden beams. Sarah and I were pleased to finish consolidating the ceiling before moving on to other aspects of the treatment. Method: Consolidating paint with BEVA gel and Aquazol 200 and 500. These adhesives are dispersed in water, which helped to soften flaking paint so that we could press them back in plane with the rest of the painted surface. In addition, they are thermoplastic adhesives, which allowed us to use light pressure and heat from a tacking iron to realign more stubborn flakes. In some areas with significant flaking, we injected the adhesive with a syringe, while other areas only required brush application. Once the consolidation was complete, we inpainted significant losses with dry pigments in Aquazol 50, which is a water-soluble and easily reversible binding medium. (Before photos – left, restored photos – right)
In addition to completing the treatment of the ceiling, we addressed some of the condition issues with two pairs of gilded mirror doors of the Turkish Room. These doors had suffered from significant termite damage in the 1980’s, and many of the wooden elements were completely hollow with only a thin layer of paint and gold leaf remaining. Our first step was to clean those surfaces that were relatively stable with water using damp cotton swabs. Following consolidation, we addressed those hollow areas by filling the losses with rolls of Japanese tissue and adhesive. We leveled the fills with a kaolin and pigment mixture to serve as an initial toning layer. This layer is completely water reversible, which will be helpful if the fills ever need to be re-done. To further integrate the fills with the rest of the surface, we inpainted with Aquazol 50 and dry pigments. After consultation with the curator, it was decided that we would not re-gild the areas of loss, so we inpainted them to match the wooden areas that were missing gilding. (Left Photo – before; Center Photo – Damage; Right Photo – Restored Doors)
The mirrors were cleaned with a non-ionic surfactant, as there was a significant accumulation of dust and debris. Some of the larger missing elements will be fabricated by a furniture conservator next year, and we hope that he will also be able to assess our work and address some of the blind cracks and losses from the reverse of the doors. This step will require that the doors to be removed from the walls, which was not a possibility this summer due to visitor access. At the conclusion of our internship, we presented our treatment work and research to the museum staff. There are plans to continue the Turkish Room Project next year, as there are many other decorative surfaces on the walls that still require treatment. The termite infestation was very extensive, and the fluctuating relative humidity in the room has caused many of the painted surfaces to cup and flake. Before on left; After on right.
I had a wonderful experience at Shangri La, and look forward to hearing from next year’s interns about their work in the Turkish Room. Although it was difficult to leave such a beautiful place, I am very excited to start my second year in WUDPAC, and I can’t wait to share more of my treatment work with the Questers. Thank you so much for your continued interest and support!